MASSKARA 2006

Another perks of my job is to travel for free. Yup! Free airfare, food, accommodation...that is, if any of Clients (which we personally handle) has sponsored an event. I had the opportunity to travel again this year in Bacolod with my colleague, Rosahlee and Jenny plus an Alaska Client. Bacolod, the city of smiles... It was a tiring ingress I (together with Jenny) had to personally be at the set-up night before the event. There are times that we even help put up the banners and/or streamers. On the event day, as expected, the venue was super jampacked. Long lines on every booth, of course including Alaska Liquid Milk, Champion Detergent and Liveraide. We (actually our manpower)gave away milk as prizes for our booth games as well as on stage. But after that very tiring half day (Harry Santos, my crush, a GMA Network talent sang and really made my day...hay.....ahhahahhah), in the afternoon, me and my colleagues plus other Advertising Agency Representatives went to the plaza to watch the parade. We've waited, and really, it was worth the wait. Various masskaras where on the road, some were really fabulous. Some masskaras have glitters, some are big, some are small, some have "walis" as part of the accessory...but one thing's for sure, all Masskaras are SMILING :) We also had the chance to visit Balay Negrense. Balay Negrense is an ancestral house of the Gaston's of Silay City, Bacolod. It was kinda creepy coz of my third eye. Of course, again, I had these weird moments and "pakiramdams" all over the house, specially the balete tree beside the house. It was nice to know though that these kind of houses were still very well preserved. Trivia : Did you know why it's called Masskara Festival? 1980 was a period of crisis in Bacolod. The price of sugar was an all-time low. April 22 of that year, MV Don Juan, an inter-island vessel carrying many Negrenses collided with a tanker and sank. It was a tragedy, many lives were lost. With the crisis and the tragedy, everything that happened on the same year, Bacolod's local government and civic groups decided to hold a festival of smiles because during that time, the city was also known as the City of Smiles. The festival, for them, was a good opportunity for the locals/residents to pull themselves from the tragedy and crisis. From that day on, the Negrenses declared that no matter how tough times were, Bacolod would be able to go through it, survive, and move on with their lives.